4100 Cyclone Left side door question

[cycloneracer]

The wife and I got in a hurry one day picking up camp. On our unit the left (non door side) big door on gas shocks hits the bedroom slide. I was out cleaning up, she was inside cleaning up. She got done before me and slid the bedroom in. Breaking the door. Design flaw, but I took my licks and ordered a new door from Heartland. Not cheap, but lesson learned. I will make sure the door won't touch the slide when I'm done installing. So I got the new door today. It came complete, frame and all. Unfortunately the frame was damaged in shipping. Can I just take the door out of the frame and install in the existing frame on the camper?

 

[boatto5er]

If your door is like mine, you should be able to do that. You can also replace the shock struts with shorter ones to keep the door from opening quite as high.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[danemayer]

A set of these corner guards may be helpful in keeping the door from contact with the slideout. They'll also help you avoid hurting yourself if you bump your head into the slide corner.

 

[cycloneracer]

That is great news. I'm going to try and pull it apart today and see if it will fit. My plan is to move the mounts for the gas struts as they didn't come with the door anyway. I think the guards would of made the situation worse as it would of caught the door. It only caught the latch and pulled it out. I don't have to worry about bumping my head on that slide........................I'm short!!!! Thanks for the input!!! Paul

 

[Rayrule]

Upon completion of the walk around on the day we took delivery of our 4000 (last June), we were walking back in the office & heard a cracking noise. The technician was closing the slide & it caught the latch & cracked the door. At least he stopped bringing in the slide when he heard the noise limiting the damage to just a few cracks & bent trim on the slide. The door was still operable & we were still able to take delivery, but a new door, struts & slide trim were ordered. After waiting 5 weeks the technician came to our house & installed the door which came with the frame & because there was no damage to the frame, he asked if he could just install the door & I agreed. So he removed the new door from the new frame (which he left with me) & slid the new door in the old frame & it worked fine. He installed the new struts, & everything worked well, stopped well below the slide. However, you can push the door beyond where it stops & it will raise up far enough for the slide to come in contact with it. So I stated my concern & would consider this a flaw especially after hearing that it happened to someone else. HL should recognize this & send a bulletin out or at least a decal to put on the door warning about the possibility of contact with the slide. Maybe more will chime in if it happened to them & or more will read these to warn them about the possibility. Please let us know how your mod works out.

 

[danemayer]

I think the guards would of made the situation worse as it would of caught the door. It only caught the latch and pulled it out.

You should reconsider. The guards keep the door just far enough away from the slide that the latch will no longer get caught. It's a very simple and inexpensive fix. Much easier than moving the struts. And it'll have the additional benefit of saving your head when you walk into the corner.

 

[Powerstroke]

The exact same thing happened to the DW as she was closing the bedroom slide after we had finished our walk thru last July on the lot. They fixed it and relocated the struts so now the door no longer comes in contact with the slide. We check and double check the door before we close the slide.

 

[cycloneracer]

I was unable to move the struts as I planned. To make it not open as far one would need shorter struts. Just moving the struts wouldn't allow the door to close. The struts bottomed out. You would have to lower the struts on the unit, not the door. I didn't want to have exposed holes in the wall so I left it alone. The foam may be the fix.

 

[remoandiris]

I completely disagree it is a design "flaw". Having the door open wide makes it vastly easier to access the basement and connections.

All you have to do is follow your checklist and you won't close the slide with the door open.

BTW, I clipped it twice, but the fault is mine, not HL's.